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Keeping a blog on the go and running an online shop as a mother - experiences and tips

Ann-Cathrin Krauss is 43 years old, married and has two daughters aged 10 and 11. She studied business administration and worked in marketing and product management for fashion / sports lifestyle companies before becoming self-employed. In the following she answers some questions and shares her experiences with you.
Experiences with an online shop and blog as a mompreneur

Keeping a blog on the go and running an online shop as a mother - experiences and tips

What made you decide to set up your own business?

My motives for going into self-employment were not very glamorous, but rather based on a reality check. We had two small children of kindergarten age, I worked part-time with 25 hours in the marketing department of a large company, my husband travelled a lot abroad for his job and we didn't have a family nearby. The classic situation of many families.

One example: The kindergarten called because our big daughter had fallen ill. I was sitting in a meeting and did not hear the phone. When my husband was called with the request to pick up his sick child, he was just getting into a taxi in China. We were not there for our daughter at that moment. For me it was a feeling of powerlessness that I did not like. In my job, I was then also asked to travel to customer appointments in other federal states. My children in Bavaria, me in North Rhine-Westphalia, my husband on another continent, it was unimaginable for me.

My children were always more important to me than my professional career. And so I took the plunge into self-employment, in order to be there for my daughters from a more powerful position and at the same time be active professionally and develop myself further. I would like to be a role model for my daughters and inspire them to combine work and family life, just as my parents showed us.

What is the best way to prepare for the Mompreneurs life?

From my experience I would say that there is no optimal preparation for an independent Mompreneur existence. Of course you have to try to plan the general conditions as well as possible, but in everyday life you should bring a high degree of flexibility and spontaneity with you. In the first years I had my office exclusively at home, so I could always work, whether in the morning, at noon, in the evening, during holidays or when the children were ill. That took a lot of pressure off me personally. Of course this model is not possible for every profession.

In our network there was a childminder and a babysitter as well as acquaintances with whom we organised carpools to the children's hobbies. This gave me additional time and also enabled my husband and I to take time out as a couple to recharge our batteries. So it is essential to build up a network as preparation for the Mompreneur-existence!

In the meantime my daughters are bigger and I have an external office besides my home office, which sometimes makes the separation between job and private life a bit easier.

What fears did you have during the founding process and how did you deal with them?

I had no fears, otherwise I would not have gone into the founding process. When I am convinced of something, I trust and don't worry about the consequences, because I have the gut feeling that I am on the right track. The basis of my self-employment was of course a well elaborated business plan with short, medium and long-term goals and a clear exit strategy if it was not to be successful.

Basically, I am a risk-averse person and would have no problem saying "stop" immediately in case of failure and, for example, to change back to a permanent position. In addition, when I started my own business, I applied for the start-up subsidy via the employment office and my husband, who provides financial support for the family income. And since I have the tax advisors in the family, I am always very quickly given "the mirror" with regard to the financial side of my self-employment.

Personally, I like the mix of working with numbers from ordering to accounting and the creative processes from curating the collection to the photo shootings for my shop, blog and social media, writing blog articles and working with people . That's why the business studies were a good basis for me to start my own business.

What tips would you give other mompreneurs to help them cope with everyday life as a mum and as an entrepreneur?

  • My first tip: Don't look right and left! When the neighbour with the 20-hour permanent job is playing relaxedly with the children in the garden in the afternoon, you often still sit over the bookkeeping department or have conversations with customers while your own children are still being looked after or have to keep yourself busy. As a mompreneur you have the maximum flexibility to organise your working hours yourself during the day or to work on weekends. So you can do something with your children during the school holidays and work from the afternoon when your husband can take over.
  • And this brings us to my second tip: You are "yourself and constantly" in self-employment and you have to accept this situation! This means that the head works around the clock and it is almost impossible to take some time off for a few days at a stretch and not think about starting a business. There is also no longer any clear separation between weekdays and weekends. Everything is fluid, depending on the amount of work involved. The laptop also comes with you on holiday because you might have to respond to enquiries after all or you might have an idea for the job. The Mompreneur existence is a full-time job with freedom!
  • My third tip: Listen to your gut feeling! Your project must feel right for you and fears must not outweigh them.

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